


Cabin Pressure Timeline - From Carolyn's Birth To Foregone Conclusions

by Euphoric_Mandelbulb



Category: Cabin Pressure
Genre: Contains A Few Mild Canonical Swearwords, Douglas' Daughters Both Have Official (Ish) Names, Footnotes Galore, Gen, Meta, Multi, Some Blathering, Some Conjecture, Timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-13
Updated: 2015-12-13
Packaged: 2018-05-06 12:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5416901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Euphoric_Mandelbulb/pseuds/Euphoric_Mandelbulb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because people asked, and it turned out not to have been done before as far as I could find.</p><p>Will contain trivia and meta-observations, mostly (but not entirely) in the form of footnotes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cabin Pressure Timeline - From Carolyn's Birth To Foregone Conclusions

**Author's Note:**

> This has been extrapolated – and occasionally conjectured – from clues in the canon material, plus the occasional Word Of John Finnemore. Feel free to correct or add information in the comments, and I'll edit where appropriate.
> 
> Numbered footnotes are acknowledgements of evidence/sources; lettered footnotes are the more unwieldy meta/trivia notes on episodes. Sorry for banging on a lot about Vaduz – I actually like that episode, honest!  
> Some notes are in the main timeline rather than footnoted, because I thought of them at the last minute and simply couldn't face re-labelling every single footnote.
> 
> A few quick notes re: certain uncertainties:
> 
> 1) Molokai: this episode could, theoretically, take place in 2009 – but JF's rule is that each season takes place around the year it was broadcast (although that's definitely not feasible for Zurich), plus placing it in 2009 leaves an even bigger gap before Season Three. Also, the phrasing of Douglas' line “Is this the first time you've flown with Arthur on Christmas morning?” somehow suggests Martin's been with MJN for more than one prior Christmas.
> 
> 2) Arthur's age: seems consistent in the first half of the series, so I stuck with that when working out his date of birth. He's therefore actually almost thirty-one in Molokai, thirty-one and a half in Ottery St Mary, and just turned thirty-two in St Petersburg. Unless he's a vampire all of a sudden or something.
> 
> 3) John Finnemore's blog notes, deleted scenes, and Farewell Bear Facts: are applied judiciously, i.e. scrapped ideas (such as Simon Crieff actually being Martin's younger brother) are ignored, but things cut for time (e.g. the deleted conversations from St Petersburg and Uskerty) are included. Things I've heard from John Finnemore in person also appear once or twice – such as the name of Douglas' younger daughter.
> 
> 4) The liner notes: are of dubious canonicity. Most notably, Carolyn's birthday cannot possibly be in October, because it has to take place between 12th November (Fitton) and 10th March (first day of Kuala Lumpur). And the diagram of G-ERTI forgot the jump seat in the flight deck. So I've largely ignored them. Although it might interest those of you without a set of liner notes to know that Douglas' address is apparently 4 Keats Road, Fitton, CV52 7TC – and his handwriting is quite neat when it's in his own notebook as opposed to Martin's. Then again, Arthur's is almost as good – presumably the result of going to a public school, even if it was a dreadful one. Also, apparently Herc's father is still alive.
> 
> 5) Douglas' first divorce: I'm not even going to speculate on that one. There must have been quite some time between his first divorce and his second marriage if he's made use of his Captain's uniform for one-night-stands with cabin crew, though, because his first marriage took place before he even started flight training.
> 
> Things in [square brackets] are mostly (or completely) conjecture.

 

  * **Early 1946** : Carolyn born in Lancashire, maiden name unknown – almost certainly named Carol at this point, and changed it later (Ruth always addresses her as Carol, though when speaking to Arthur she refers angrily to “Little Miss Businesswoman Carolyn”).  
[Carolyn's probably younger than Ruth, since Ruth has a fourteen-year-old grandson but Arthur's barely old enough to be the father of a fourteen-year-old; of course, Ruth may simply have had her child (children?) in her twenties.]  


  * **1955** : Douglas Richardson born, son of Dr Richardson and Dr Penelope Richardson of the Royal College of Surgeons; location unknown, [but since he went to Oxford – probably to the Aviation Academy as well as medical school – it would be just like him to have grown up in Cambridge.] _  
_

  * **November/December 1956** : Hercules Shipwright born – birth order of his three siblings and himself unknown.  


  * **Circa 1964 – 1970** : having done quite poorly at school, Carol(yn) runs the sweetshop into the ground and becomes a flight attendant. (Whether she married and divorced Ian Knapp during her sweetshop or stewardess days is unclear, [but sweetshop seems more likely if he's the sort of person Ruth likes].)  


  * [ **Circa 1970** : Simon Crieff born. He's a large older brother with a government-esque job, so of course he's seven years older. This easily makes him old enough to lift Martin from the very beginning.]  


  * **July/August 1975/1976** : Douglas quits medical school at the end of his second year, after he was assisting in an operation (essentially work experience – it's a medical student thing, apparently) and didn't want to touch the patient's brain.  


  * **1977** : Martin Crieff born in Wokingham, to Wendy and Mr Crieff. Almost immediately fixates upon aeroplanes.  


  * **Also 1977** : Douglas' first wedding – preceded by that epic stag night in Soho involving Jeffrey Bernard, Peter Cook, and whichever Kink can fit three golf balls into his mouth. (Also involving Douglas' mysterious brother.)  
[Verity Richardson may have been born around this point – this idea appeals mostly because Douglas would find Martin's captaincy particularly unbearable if Martin were no older than Verity.]  


  * **Circa 1977/1978** : Douglas begins pilot training.  


  * **1978/1979** : Carolyn marries Gordon Shappey.  


  * **1979** : Douglas qualifies as a pilot, finds a job, and “one night” stays awake for five days (the International Date Line may have been involved here).  


  * **Early 1980** : Arthur Shappey born, in either England or Australia.  
[Carolyn's plans to divorce Gordon are put on hold until such time as Gordon can't take custody of Arthur.]  


  * [ **Circa 1980** : Caitlyn Crieff born (she and Martin interact like they're of similar age).]  


  * **Circa 1980** : a notoriously poor era for aircraft design, in terms of looks at least **1**. G-ERTI purchased by Gordon Shappey.  
[Possibly along with another Lockheed McDonnell 312 which has since broken altogether and been dismantled for parts, or how else would Gordon have had exactly what G-ERTI needed at short notice?]  


  * **Circa 1983** : Martin switches ambitions from aeroplane to pilot, [and his fixation from aeroplanes themselves to aviation.]  


  * **1987/1988** : Douglas becomes a Captain.  


  * **Circa** **1994** : Carolyn and Ruth have an unspecified disagreement which leads them to cease all communications with each other for fifteen years.  
[This occurred shortly before the conception of Kieran Gregson – it might have been something to do with his parents, although possibly not.]  


  * **Circa 1995** : Martin rejected from all flight schools, thus begins arranging and funding his own flight training.  


  * **Circa 1996** : Carolyn divorces Gordon and wins G-ERTI (along with a small fortune) – twelve years before _Helsinki_ , though Ruth doesn't need to know that MJN has actually only been around for eight of those.  


  * **Circa 1999–2000** : Douglas' second and third marriages take place within the same year **2** ; Douglas gives up drinking alcohol; [Milly Richardson born, probably to Douglas' second wife – Milly's at the right age in 2009 to be having an outdoor birthday party full of “excited children”, and it makes sense for Douglas to have given up drinking around the time of her birth]; Douglas fired from Air England. (Exact order of these events is unclear).  


  * **Circa 2000** : MJN established (eight years before _Douz_ and _Fitton_ ). Gordon begins his annual tradition of trying to buy G-ERTI every 12th of November, [possibly having phoned more often before this].  
[Douglas is probably hired within a year or so, if not at the beginning.]

  * **Late 2002 (probably September or October)** : Martin moves into the horrible attic of the student house on Parkside Terrace.  


  * **Circa 2005-2006** : Martin qualifies as a pilot; Martin's father dies; Martin is hired for his first piloting job four months after his father's death.  


  * **Circa late 2006 / early 2007** : Martin loses that first “rubbish” job.  


  * **Mid-late October 2007** : Martin hired by MJN **3**.  


  * **June 2008** : events of _Abu Dhabi_ **3** , with most of the episode taking place the **Thursday** after the first two scenes.  


  * **July–August 2008** : Events of _Boston_ **A** and _Cremona_ **B**.  


  * **Sometime before the end of September 2008** : Events of _Douz_ **4 C**.  


  * **Circa Wednesday 15** **th** **October 2008** : opening scene of _Edinburgh_ (“the next two weeks” includes Birling Day).  


  * **Saturday 18** **th** **October 2008** : MJN pick up a CFO in Oslo.  


  * **Friday 24** **th** **October 2008** : MJN take a stag do to Rome.  


  * **Tuesday 28** **th** **October 2008** : Main events (Birling Day) of _Edinburgh_ **5 D**.  


  * **Wednesday 12** **th** **November 2008** : events of _Fitton_ ; shortly afterwards, Douglas confesses to Helena; Helena then confesses to Douglas.  


  * **Late November or early December 2008** : events of _Gdansk_ **E**.  


  * **Early 2009 (up to and including the first week of March)** : events of _Helsinki_ , _Ipswich_ (main events the **Monday** after the first scene) **F** , and _Johannesburg_ (main events take place the **week after** the first two scenes) **G** – Milly Richardson's birthday was evidently unseasonably warm (even if it was in the first few days of March), but this does explain why Douglas' scheme hadn't accounted for potential warm weather; Arthur's horrible car (almost certainly a Vauxhall Corsa) is returned to him, for whatever reason; [Helena and Douglas begin divorce proceedings].  


  * **Tuesday 10** **th** **March – Friday 13** **th** **March 2009** : events of _Kuala Lumpur_ **6 H**.  
[Shortly followed by Arthur doing something unforgiveable to/with Carolyn's car – since he isn't allowed to drive it by _Paris_.]  


  * **Some point in 2009** : events of _Limerick_ **I** – Arthur is now twenty-nine, although his birthday was probably in early 2009.  


  * **Some point in 2009 / 2010** : Helena and Douglas' divorce is finalised.  


  * **Saturday 18** **th** **December – morning of Saturday 25** **th** **December 2010** : MJN fly Japanese businessmen back and forth between Tokyo and Hong Kong.  


  * **Saturday 25** **th** **December 2010** : events of _Molokai_ **J**.  


  * **Late July/ early August 2011** : events of _Newcastle_ and _Ottery St Mary_ (the **Thursday after** _Newcastle_ ) **7 K**.  


  * **October 2011** : events of _Paris_ **L**.  


  * **Late 2011 – January 2012** : events of _Qikiqtarjuaq_ (starts on a **Tuesday** morning in America/Canada's time zone, but on top of the Qikiqtarjuaq flight time they'll lose about six hours time-change plus six hours' flight time in crossing the Atlantic, hence Martin's concern over his Thursday van job; evidently takes place at some point when the bears aren't hibernating) and _Rotterdam_ **M** (dates of first and last scene unclear, first half or so on **Wednesday** , Captain Martin spends **Thursday** recording his demo tape, second half or so – i.e. anything with Martin Davenport – on **Friday** , crew probably stay at least overnight in Rotterdam since the Belgian Grand Prix is at the weekend)M.  
(At some point before _Rotterdam_ , Martin seems to have actually _met_ Herc properly – enough to decide that he likes him. Timing of this is unclear.)  


  * **February 2012** : events of _St Petersburg_ – over exactly 24 hours, during which time it takes three hours to acquire and eat lunch (tough beef really _can_ take that long to eat, though...), and Arthur spends about seven hours searching duty-free for Toblerones (entirely believable – not so much because he's _Arthur_ , but because this is Arthur-in-terror-of-Gordon). **N**  


  * **October 2012** : events of _Timbuktu_ **O**.  


  * **Friday 9** **th** **– Sunday 11** **th** **November 2012** : MJN are in Cork.  


  * **Monday 12** **th** **November 2012** : events of _Uskerty_ **8** **P**.  


  * **Friday 28** **th** **December or Saturday 29** **th** **December 2012** : opening scene of _Vaduz_ ; Carolyn and Herc head off on holiday (it depends on whether the day of flying out counts as the first day) – presumably to a destination in the Southern Hemisphere (not Australia, for obvious reasons).  


  * **Sunday 30** **th** **December 2012** : Theresa phones to charter a flight with MJN.  


  * **Friday 4** **th** **January 2013** : main events of _Vaduz_ **Q** (it _has_ to be the first Friday of January, because Maxi's going back to school). Incidentally, Maximilian VIII of Liechtenstein is ten years old **9** , and probably attending prep school (ages eight to thirteen, fee-paying, largely the preserve of Old Money families).  


  * **January 2013** : events of _Wokingham_ (covering at least a week, possibly a day or two more – Arthur is deployed three days after Wendy's angina attack, Simon arrives two days after that i.e. five days after being told that Wendy had been briefly hospitalised, the **Sunday** drive to Stansted is at least two days after Simon's arrival) **R** and _Xinzhou_ **S** **10**.  


  * **February - early March 2013** : Martin's initial Swiss Air “simulator check” and “technical exam”; opening scene of _Yverdon-les-Bains_.  


  * **Tuesday 19** **th** **March 2013** : Martin does the dawn flight to Doncaster solo, in place of Douglas.  


  * **Thursday 21** **st** **March 2013** : remaining events of _Yverdon-les-Bains_ ; first scenes of _Zurich_.  


  * **April 2013** : main events of _Zurich_ **T** , assuming that the conversion course takes place before Martin actually starts his new job in June (only a few weeks seem to have passed between the first scenes and the main events).  


  * **Late 2013** : epilogues of _Zurich_ , depending on how long it took to turn the ashes of MJN into the newly-minted OJS; Carolyn marries Herc at some point and becomes Carolyn Shipwright (probably insisting “it's not worth the extra paperwork to do otherwise”), but Arthur doesn't change his surname to match **11**.  


  * **2015** : Douglas turns sixty; planes captained by someone aged sixty or over are not permitted into French airspace, [so Carolyn may or may not force Herc and Douglas to swap positions (to save money) until Herc turns sixty in **late** **2016** ] **12**.  


  * **2020** : Douglas reaches the mandatory retirement age for pilots (sixty-five); OJS is restricted to short flights, unless they can find a short-term second pilot. [Herc is probably Captain by default.]   
(Someone who is probably Arthur had better find Douglas something to do from now on. Who wants Arthur to make Douglas move in with the rest of OJS?)  


  * **Late 2021** : Herc turns sixty-five; OJS either folds or is sold – [if it folds, hopefully G-ERTI is put out to grass at Duxford or somewhere this time, being that bit older and more valuable/interesting now] **13**.  


  * **2023** : Maxi comes of age (twenty-one – unless his birthday is in the first three days of January, in which case this occurs in **2024** ) and fully assumes his throne; Theresa merits far less media attention and political importance once she's no longer Regent, [so if she's still together with Martin then this is when they'll marry if they ever do] (Theresa is in her early forties by this point).




  
*******

  
**A** ) In which Douglas foreshadows his medical-student past: after Martin asks for anyone with medical training to come to the flight-deck door, it is immediately opened by Douglas.  
  
**B** ) In which Arthur says “brilliant” for the first time.  
  
**C** ) In which Arthur's overuse of the word “brilliant” begins - although it doesn't reappear until _Gdansk_ .  
  
**D** ) In which Phil from the Fitton fire crew is still known as Philip.  
  
**E** ) First appearance of the cheese tray, and of the strongest swearword in the series (“bugger”).  
  
**F** ) Second and final appearance of strongest swearword. Also, the RAF _does_ use the rank of Sergeant - ranking between Corporal and Flight Sergeant, i.e. two ranks below Warrant Officer.  
  
**G** ) Possibility that Madrid ATC hates Martin/MJN, since they send them to an airfield with no engineer despite being asked for the nearest suitable airfield regarding a malfunction – which is only thirty miles away. Also, the baggage truck may have had no _physical windows_ rather than no doors, because we hear the doors slam (thanks for noticing that goof go to super-transcriber Ariane DeVere.)  
  
**H** ) In which Arthur manages to tell lies without falling over, even though he isn't sitting down. Also features probably the second-strongest swearword of the series (“piss”).   
  
**I** ) The most swearwords of any episode (8) if we're including “bloody”; also the most uses of “brilliant” (7). Likely because it's a dialogue-heavy episode even by radio standards.  
  
**J** ) In which even _Arthur_ doesn't like hiding in the locker, and is somehow still twenty-nine; the first three minutes out of “precisely seven” last for one-and-a-quarter minutes, as do the following four (to be fair, some lines were cut from this scene).  
  
**K** ) In which the Knapp-Shappey house is by a tree, Herc hasn't yet discovered that feta isn't suitable for vegetarians, and Arthur is still twenty-nine.  
  
**L** ) In which Carolyn gets sneaky revenge on Mr Birling by swigging the Talisker straight from the bottle. Incidentally, this really was a year when the Rugby World Cup final took place – but, although France were one of the finalists, the match was hosted by the other finalists: New Zealand.  
  
**M** ) In which Douglas is apparently about the same size and shape as Arthur.   
  
**N** ) In which Arthur is “almost thirty”, i.e. _still_ twenty-nine, and Douglas “hasn't drunk for a decade” (sounds prettier than saying “eleven years” or “almost twelve years”); Martin evidently failed his PPL a couple of times, or Gordon didn't do enough research.  
  
**O** ) The crew travel to and from Luton earlier in the day; in which Arthur and Carolyn display amazing balance - by not falling over when G-ERTI unexpectedly lands; there genuinely was a civil war in Northern Mali – including Timbuktu - throughout 2012 (and for over two years afterwards – a ceasefire was signed in February 2015 but hasn't entirely worked).  
  
**P** ) In which Carolyn's pronunciation abilities fail at last, Martin doesn't seem to count removing his ring for airport security scanners as “taking it off”, peach schnapps is in fact to Arthur as _midnight snacks_ are to Gremlins (or, more accurately, Mogwai), two minutes last just over one minute, and the Kilkenny landing fees are apparently cheaper than taking a taxi to and from Uskerty all the way from Cork instead of from Kilkenny.  
  
**Q** ) In which gender is specified for the first time when referring to Martin's love life (although they go right back to gender-neutral after the “ex-girlfriends” line).  
In which almost every medal mentioned doesn't seem to exist in our universe, at least as far as Google knows (out of interest: the only real medal of Liechtenstein is the _F_ _ü_ _rstlich liechtensteinischer Verdienstorden_ aka the Order of Merit of the Principality of Liechtenstein, for services rendered to Liechtenstein – although that does come in about eight different levels, the highest of which is the Grand Star), and the one which does exist – the Cadet Forces Medal – is misrepresented (it's actually for twelve years of service as an _adult_ Commissioned Officer or non-commissioned instructor of a Cadet Corps); on a similar note, there is no such rank as Junior Corporal (it's Cadet Corporal – although it might have been different in the 90s for all I know). It _is_ possible to spend ten years in the Air Cadets, but only by spending two years as a volunteer civilian instructor (ending at some point during the year 2000 in Martin's case, oddly enough) – minimum joining age is the start of Year Eight (i.e. twelve years old, plus a varying number of months), and compulsory leaving age for cadets is twenty.  
In which Arthur and Maxi somehow manage to invent European Monarch Top Trumps _in-flight._  
In which Theresa inexplicably has medals to hand in the taxi.  
In which the pilots unquestioningly let Theresa into the flight deck during the flight.  
[Essentially: this episode needed a tad more editing and research, and may have been written in a rush.]  
  
**R** ) In which they _finally_ play the game they've been suggesting about once per season, Carolyn gets a saying wrong in calling Wendy an “immovable _force_ ”, Caitlin Crieff takes longer to arrive than Martin – who took three hours – even though she works in Wokingham and left halfway through her shift, and MJN are _driving_ to Stansted for some reason (just as unexplained as Arthur's initial absence from G-ERTI).  
  
**S** ) In which two minutes (by Carolyn's watch) are covered in thirteen seconds, and the following minute takes thirty seconds.  
  
**T** ) In which Martin apparently forgets that he was only “adequate” even on the Swiss Air simulator (so G-ERTI wasn't concealing _that_ much flying prowess), Arthur is presumably the only one carrying his _driving_ license (the pilots only have their pilots' licenses), Herc has misunderstood – or misremembered – the events of Uskerty (he probably heard them from Arthur), and Gordon inexplicably self-bowdlerises.  


*******

  
  
**1** ) According to super-illustrator (and animator, apparently) Tealin of Tumblr/Dreamwidth:  [ http://tealin.dreamwidth.org/471455.html ](http://tealin.dreamwidth.org/471455.html)   
  
**2** ) Deleted scene:  [ http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/farewell-bear-facts-edinburgh.html ](http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/farewell-bear-facts-edinburgh.html)   
  
**3** ) Word of John Finnemore:  [ http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/timbuktu.html ](http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/timbuktu.html) although Martin hadn't joined MJN on the Birling Day before Edinburgh, which would have been at some point in October... let's just assume that the Rugby World Cup Final was quite early in October 2007 (it wasn't – and doesn't ever seem to be - in our universe, but stuff it) and that Martin joined in mid-October.  
  
**4** ) The UK cricket season is April-September.  
  
**5** ) The Six Nations takes place from February to March, but the Rugby World Cup final is in October so it fits better... although it only takes place every four years, and not in 2008, but what the hell.  
  
**6** ) Martin's been at MJN for “a year and a half” at this point, but the full moon in April 2009 was on a Thursday, and the May 2009 one was on a Saturday – it makes a lot more sense for this episode to take place in March 2009, when the full moon reached totality just before 3am on Wednesday 11  th  , i.e. the night following Tuesday the 10  th  (making the last day of the episode a Friday, explaining why the Mystery Passenger training lasts four days). Either Martin is rounding up a little (Carolyn and Herc's sixteen months is referred to as “a year and a half" in _Xinzhou_ , after all), or John Finnemore hadn't yet done his additional research regarding rugby. Or both.  
  
**7** ) Sixteen months before _Vaduz_ , and it's dry enough to walk through the park, with no sound of dead leaves.  
  
**8** ) According to the deleted scene, Gordon made his annual phone call to try and buy back G-ERTI just before the episode begins:  [ http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/farewell-bear-facts-uskerty.html ](http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/farewell-bear-facts-uskerty.html) And they've spent three days in Cork, not including the day they leave since Arthur greets the pilots with “Morning, chaps!”.  
  
**9** )  [ http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/vaduz.html ](http://johnfinnemore.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/vaduz.html)   
  
**10** ) Carolyn and Herc have still only been together for sixteen months by _Xinzhou_ .  
  
**11** ) Word of John Finnemore on that Facebook Q &A. Sorry – I liked the idea too.  
  
**12** ) I asked John Finnemore in person, and even he doesn't know whether she'd do this.  
  
**13** ) Even John Finnemore doesn't know what the crew of OJS will do after this point – again, I asked him in person.  


**Author's Note:**

> Once again, please let me know if there are any glaring mistakes here! (It's amazing how much difference one overlooked line can make. Seriously, realising that Uskerty is set in 2012 meant reshuffling quite a bit of Douglas' early years, and of course Herc's year of birth too. This means that Carolyn's actually only about nine-and-a-half years Douglas' senior, and just under eleven years Herc's senior.)
> 
> For once, I actually can't think of much else to say here...


End file.
